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UPDATING ALWAYS IN PROGRESS: Tuesday, 12 July 2022
THE WAVES and THE WINS of Recruit Training Command, Orlando, Florida >>>>>>>>>> A WORK IN PROGRESS <<<<<<<<<<

MAP: This was the proposed idea for a ten year plan given in 1966.

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Transfer Money Refused
Wave Move Deferred
WASHINGTON - The House Armed Services Committee Tuesday refused to authorize a $5.2 million expenditure by the Navy to move its recruit training facility for enlisted women from Bainbridge, Maryland to the new Naval Training Center at Orlando, Florida. But members of the committee said the refusal to authorize appropriations for the transfer was more in the nature of a 'deferral' than a firm decision against the Navy's plan to move the Wave center to Orlando.

"This action in no way diminishes the authorized program for development of the new Naval Training Center at Orlando," said Rep. Chalres E. Bennett of Jacksonville, Florida, a member of the committee. "The committee wanted to be sure that the Wave training operation could not be done as economically at Bainbridge as at Orlando, and in effect it has voted to defer the Navy's request for authority to move the Wave center, not now but some years in the future." Bennett added.

Similarly, Rep. Edward J. Gurney, Winter Park Republican, said after the questioning the Armed Servcies Committee that 'this takes nothing away from Orlando that has been authorized for the new training center there. The transfer of the Wave center has never been authorized by Congress, although the Navy has said in committee hearings that it does plan to make a shift from Bainbridge."

Gurney said the Navy had been handicapped in justifying its plans for removal of the Wave boot camp from Bainbridge by the fact that, before the decision was made to establish the new Naval Training Center at Orlando rather than at Bainbridge, the Navy had begun construction of a $1.26 million Wave barracks at the Maryland installation.

This fact, and the fact the Navy had been unable to say definitely that it would be able to find another use for the Bainbridge barracks which would fill it up after removal of the Wave training center to Orlando, led to the Armed Services Committee 'deferral' of the project.

Rep. C.B. Morton, Republican, Maryland, did not share the view of Florida lawmakers that the knocking out of the $5.2 million authorization for the Wave center transfer was a routine deferral pending a study of economic factors involved. Morton said it was a 'victory' for the Maryland delegation in its effort to keep Bainbridge alive and functioning.

Source:
1 - Orlando Sentinel, The - Orlando, Florida - 19 July 1967 (Roulhac Hamilton)

WAVES Try to Sink Old World War Two Image

BAINBRIDGE, MD. (AP) - The Waves want to sink a World War II image.

Top brass at Bainbridge's U.S. Naval Training Center, where the nation's enlisted Waves struggle through bootcamp, are out to torpedo the public idea that Waves are a group of crass, loose-living women who primary duty is entertaining Sailors at overseas canteens.

The new society of bell-bottom skirts is young, between 18 and 26, single, college or high school alumnae, and painfully clothes conscious.

"We want the normal American girl who's devoted to her country - not the dregs of society," said Lt Janet Blumberg, 24, Mount Holly Springs, Pennsylvania. She's the Waves Public Information Officer.

Commanded by Commander Anne L. Ducey, 51, of Haverstraw, New York, the Navy's only female Commanding Officer, the center trains 600 recruits in the Summer months.

This drops to half that in Winter, after graduation rushes. The Navy has upward of 5,000 Waves, short for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.

Recently the Waves came into the news when Paul H. Nitze, Secretary of the Navy, announced a cutback at Bainbridge. He said the Navy plans to shift the Waves training center and other facilities to Orlando, Florida because of cost factors.

A half-finished barracks for the Waves will be used for other purposes. "It's tough, but it's fun," said Seaman Sharon Tremmel, 18, Cleveland, Ohio, "And you learn how to get dressed in two minutes flat, head to foot. Before I came here, boy, was I unorganized!" That's the keyword, organization.

Either "baby booties" - new recruits - shape up in 10 weeks of boot camp or they're out. Fifteen per cent do not make it so a board of Naval Officers and doctors sign release papers. Some droputs won't accept discipline. Many are too slow and buckle under the diet of drills and classes.

Sixty recruits, a company, arrive every two weeks. Teenage girls accustomed to Bobby Darin, pop-op, and privacy are apt to be jarred silent. Eight recruits share a cubicle. They sleep in bunk beds, walk on bare-board floors and look up at bare-beamed ceilings.

Next, a crew of seamstresses doggedly stitch 60 hemlines to 'within two inches of the knee, ladies," and put in countless tucks to compensate for Jayne Mansfield figures. Sometime later, after the tailoring is done, they'll be issued Navy Blue Winter uniforms, very smart white dress uniform, and two-piece blue and white stripped summer suits.

But now, 60 rather scared recruits trek out of the fititng room clad in blue raincoats with the hoods up. For all the world they look like a band of monks. Ahead of them is 10 weeks of learning Navy symbols, weapons parts, and endless drills.

Source:
1 - The Sante Fe New Mexican - Santa Fe, New Mexico - 20 June 1966
2 - The Baytown Sun - Baytown, Texas - 22 June 1966

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Esther Marie Bidlack, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roth Johnston, now Yeoman Bidlack in the United States Navy, is visiting her parents while on leave before reporting Monday to the United States Naval Training Center in Orlando.

Seaman Apprentice Bidlack has just completed 10 weeks of basic training at Recruit Training Command for Women at the United States Naval Training Center in Bainbridge, Maryland. She was graduated during a military review on October 18.

The local Wave, now 18, is a graduate of Kathleen High School. She is the first person from Lakeland to be assigned to the Orlando NTC for permanent duty.

Source:
1 - Tampa Tribune, The - Tampa, Florida - 25 October 1968 (Dolly Luhrs)

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